Quite simply the first book I ever read that made me realize that the inner workings of politics could be interesting. I personally think HST was at his best when engaged in politics in some way, whether he was reporting or participating. Like so many of his generation, it seemed like when it became clear that the wrong side won the culture war (1980-ish?) he just fucking gave up. Or maybe Hunter was just a self-indulgent train wreck and it had nothing to do with "the times". But I don't know; I was 2 years old in 1980 and I swear I could tell something was NOT RIGHT. Anyone who thinks it's time to take a more sympathetic view of Dick Nixon is a fatuous, sentimental twit.

Politics is a drug and Hunter Thompson got hooked. His unflinching, up close look at the failed McGovern campaign for presidency is hysterical, moving, and ultimately raises profound questions about American apathy in elections. At the end, when he tries to piece together the failure of the campaign and interviews McGovern, I got this weird sense that somehow Barack Obama had found the magic formula for the "anti-politician" national campaign that energizes the youth vote while not alienating the black or women caucuses.

Ultimately, McGovern's top aides were too busy playing with delegate counts at the DNC and failed to properly vet the VP candidates, and the damage control efforts were awful. Luckily, Hunter was along for the ride, chugging down Wild Turkey, driving a convertible, and alternating between wanting to cry and laughing his ass off. You will too.

All I can say is, "Fear and Loathing" is pretty closely associated with how I feel after reading this book. An immensely enthralling read (I read over 300 pages just today- couldn't put it down); scarily similar to the presidential race currently transpiring. The end of the book is heartbreaking; although we all know how history unfolded (4 more years of Nixon), I couldn't help but root for McGovern's campaign, senselessly and against all logic. It reminds of me how I felt four years ago, drinking myself into a depressed stupor as I watched the returns and tried to resign myself to the sickening idea of More Bush. It also reminds me of how I feel now, becoming increasingly more aware of the plausibility of a Clinton/[McCain? Romney?:] ticket, and being faced with making a voting decision akin to deciding whether to saw off my own arm or leg without anesthesia.

I intentionally waited for the presidential election (2012) to roll around again before I finally decided to read this. My mind set kind of gets radicalized when it comes time to watch the ugly process begin again, and that's the mindset I wanted to be in when I read this. I already know I like Thompsons writing. I just wanted to read his coverage on an election while one was about to wind down. Needless to say, I loved the book. I also liked the introduction by Matt Taibbi, enough to go pick up a few of his books. What really stands out to me is that, even forty years later, the same broken system is producing the same useless candidates pushing the same counter productive policies. The American electorate really is as stupid as I fear, because no one learns from past mistakes. And reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 was proof of that, unfortunately. It's a great piece of political history, even if it depresses you a little after the fact.

I appreciate that Hunter Thompson he makes no excuses that he is a McGovern man from the beginning. Most political reporting would benefit from a declaration as to who is in the tank for who. To Thompson's credit, his desire for McGovern doesn't not cloud his judgement to political realities throughout the campaign. He is honest about the campaign's missteps and he even criticizes McGovern for making some wrong moves although he develops a personal relationship with the candidate as the year goes on. Hunter also covers the team around McGovern, several of whom will go on to national careers beyond this campaign, future Senator Gary Hart and Carter adviser Pat Caddell.

The humor is divided between Hunter's self-deprecating stories and his dislike for most all of the other candidates. Hunter hates the war and he hates Nixon. He has so many descriptive terms for his hatred of Nixon and his people that it would get dull if it wasn't so clever. Later in the book he jumps to Hubert Humphrey and says that if that HH wins the nomination he will vote for Nixon anyway, because HH is the worst and then goes on to tell us of his hatred for Humphrey.

Early in the book he gives McGovern no real chance at the nomination, although he isn't sure of the appeal of Edmund Muskie, the man the media has anointed as the unbeatable Democrat. 1972 was a crossroads for the Democrat Party. Humphrey, Muskie, Scoop Jackson represented the foreign policy hawk wing of the party while John Lindsay and George McGovern represented the doves. Scoop Jackson is now remembered in history as the mentor of future neo-conservative architects like Richard Pearle and Paul Wolfowitz. In other words, that wing of the party no longer exists and this campaign was the tail end of it. The action also includes perennial candidate George Wallace, back in the Democrat fold after an independent run in 1968.

The bulk of the book is a re-print of Hunter's twice monthly columns for Rolling Stone so the commentary evolves over the course of the story. The end of the book has a very honest interview with George McGovern followed by the editor interviewing Hunter.

I was a bit worried going into the book that it would weigh too heavily on the madcap adventures like in his Las Vegas memoir/novel. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised at how straightforward and insightful Thompson is throughout the book. I am too young to have a memory of 1972 so this story is political history for me and I would recommend it to anyone that has an interest in the subject.

There are a few books-- very few-- I read that, after I've finished and if they've left an impression on me, I track down and purchase an original 1st edition printing of it to put up on my shelf (perhaps my daughter will read them one day and have a better understanding of who I am; maybe I just like to collect beautiful things). This is one of those books. It's a rare feat to be both timely and classic, and regardless of when you pick this one up, you'll find Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 is exactly that: there's as much to take away from it regarding politics past as there is to take away from it regarding politics present and future. Plus, it's just a fun read. This is a must have for anyone interested in politics, writing, history, journalism, Hunter Thompson or the art of the snark, archived 1st edition or not.

Explains where the U.S.A. is now, 50 years ago. Only the names have changed. The 'evolution' of MAGA is set forth in full.

Weirdly, keenly, sadly, presciently, and unsettlingly still relevant 50 years on as the political pendulum swings back and forth across the US. It was the perfect book to read now. Rip roaring. Accurate if not factual, apparently. My first HST read and I'm pleasantly surprised to enjoy it so much, I'm usually one of those uptight prudes who doesn't like the drug reads of this Era.

Hunter S Thompson is such a fun writer. I decided to dig in to Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail after the last presidential election and it was sobering to see just how far back the exact same problems with western representative democracy go. It puts to bed what probably would have happened if Bernie had won his primaries, and Hunter is pointing out that the establishment parties need to be destroyed for anything to change over 50 years ago. I love all the parts where he makes himself a main character and blasts like a chaos tornado through political events.

The book was pretty disjointed (obviously that's part of the charm and style, but at 400 pages it gets a bit exhausting after a while). As a non-American, all of the parts talking about the intricacies of the electoral college felt like reading another language it was so confusing and bizarre, but that's not Hunters fault. Also Hunter gets a lot more racist when he has more time to talk, whewf. An interesting read and fun when it's fun but a bit to unwieldly to recommend unless the subject matter is specifically interesting to them.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 is a high-speed drive through the world of politics with none other than Hunter S. Thompson in the driver's seat (with a glass of Wild Turkey in his lap and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, and laughers in the trunk). For readers familiar with his earlier works, F&L on the Campaign Trail reads like Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga mixed with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The blended style is great and makes for a book about politics that isn’t dull in the least bit.

F&L on The Campaign Trail is a savage journey to the heart of American politics and the lessons that come from it are far more relevant than just the ’72 election. Given that we (as of now) are just one year away from the 2016 election, I think everyone could learn a thing or two from reading this while the primaries are just about to get under way. During the terms of Bush and Obama the media has claimed that the American people are undergoing some kind of grand disillusionment with politics. While this is certainly true, we need not look back further than 40 years to see the last time the American people rode this wave of uncertainty. Recall that in ’68 Richard Nixon was elected President of the United States amid growing opposition to the Vietnam War. In the 4 years leading up to the ’72 election it looked like the defining issues were busing (as a means of promoting racial desegregation), abandoning the Vietnam War, and amnesty (for draft-dodging the Vietnam War). This meant racial and anti-war tensions were high, much like today between the recent bouts of racially-motivated shootings and U.S. involvement in the middle-east over ISIS. The American public was sick of politics and the sentiments that are present today were just as present back then. Thompson explains:

And how many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million I tend to agree with a chance to vote FOR something, instead of being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?

The political apathy was palpable at the time, as it is today, and much of the American people were hoping that the Democratic Party could produce a candidate powerful enough to stand up to the incumbent Richard Nixon. Thompson begins at the very start of the Democratic Primaries and follows its various stars, Hubert Humphrey, Ed Muskie, George Wallace, and George McGovern all the way through election day on November 7th, 1972. Thompson takes a natural affinity towards McGovern and touts him as his ‘personal pick’ throughout the book. Thompson describes McGovern as a candidate that is different from Richard Nixon and the other career-politician type Democratic candidates. McGovern is viewed as a long shot, but as the right man for the job. Thompson wrote:

The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy-then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece. Probably the rarest form of life in American politics is the man who can turn on a crowd & still keep his head straight-assuming it was straight in the first place. Which harks back to McGovern’s problem. He is probably the most honest big-time politician in America.

It is easy for a reader to get behind Thompson’s writings on the up and downs of the election and how our potential political champion, McGovern, ultimately fairs. I don’t want to give out any spoilers for those for us that are not as historically inclined as others, so I’ll mainly stick to outlining some of the lessons that can be learned from this book, rather than the details of the plot.

First, Thompson expertly captures how the media has overtaken politics and how any semblance of honesty in politics has withered away. He writes:

The assholes who run politics in this country have become so mesmerized by the Madison Avenue school of campaigning that they actually believe, now, that all it takes to become a Congressman or a Senator-or even a President-is a nice set of teeth, a big wad of money, and a half-dozen Media Specialists.

And to think this was before smartphones and the internet! If only Thompson would have lived to see what politics has devolved into nowadays. It is enlightening to see where the commodification of politics began and the book sheds some light into how the campaigns of nowadays got their beginnings.

Second, Thompson gets down and dirty in analyzing the more ruthless parts of political campaigns from negative campaigning to bribing delegates. He describes the situation particularly well:

‘Christ, we can’t get away calling him a pig-fucker,’ the campaign manager protested. ‘Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that.’ ‘I know,’ Johson replied. ‘But let’s make that sonofabitch deny it.’

Thompson goes even deeper in his analysis and provides a long postmortem of the general election, as well as an intriguing theory to how Nixon may have tried to sellout the Republicans in the ’76 election in order to improve his chances in the ’72 election. His analysis is excellent and thought-provoking.

Lastly, don’t forget that this is still a work of Gonzo Journalism. Don’t be phased by any drug-induced tangents Thompson stumbles into or dream-like sequences. It is all a necessary part of the story. In this journey Thompson gets to finally ride his Vincent Black Shadow and has another go at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills hotel. Any reader of F&L in Las Vegas will also appreciate the multiple references to Raoul Duke from the Sports Desk.

All in all, this book is a great read. It is a must-read for any fan of Hunter S. Thompson. It is also an excellent read for anyone trying to get some historical insight on politics and the upcoming 2016 election.

UPDATE (previously 4 stars): Even though I read this a while ago, it keeps popping back into my mind and reminds me of how much I enjoyed it and find myself wishing I was still reading it. If a book does this, that then it's definitely 5 stars.

Extremely refreshing to read a book about politics and/or campaigning that isn't from the perspective of someone buried deep up their subject's ass.

Of all the possible books one can read, I picked up Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72 this year for two reasons. I wanted to know:

1. Are there parallels in Thompson’s coverage to what we’re experiencing in the era of Donald Trump? Was the Nixon campaign, and was Nixon as a candidate, as depraved and absurd as what we’re seeing today?

2. Should I regret not going on the campaign trail? Is following a campaign a desirable pursuit for a journalist? Or do you just become part of the sausage you think you’re describing being made?

But let’s back up first and talk about Thompson’s influence on our culture. Like Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac before him, Thompson can be dangerous, if not outright toxic, if read and emulated at a young age. It’s easy to practice the travel and drinking (in Hemingway’s case), the travel and women (in Miller’s), the drinking and women (in Bukowski’s) and the drinking and travel and women (in Kerouac’s) without practicing the writing they all worked at despite the time they spent on their other individual pursuits. Mix in heavy drug use and you have the legion of Thompson fans who want the party but don’t want to put in the work to make the art. If you try to be all these men, usually one by one as you discover their work for the first time, soon your 20s are gone, given to experiences in place of actually learning how to write.

Every year when you go to out the bars on Halloween you see someone dressed up like Johnny Depp’s version of Thompson in the movie “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Green plastic card playing visor. Cigarette holder. Aviator sunglasses. Instantly recognizable. What does it say about our society that one of the most famous writers of the modern age is a self-described drug-addled lunatic?

I tired of the myth of Thompson long ago. Or, more accurately, I tired of trying to live up to that myth. Thompson casts a long shadow in modern letters. Still, what writer wouldn’t want to have Bill Murray or Depp play them in a movie? To have the movie version of yourself cast next to a young, gorgeous Amber Heard?

Like Matt Taibbi writes in the introduction to ...Campaign Trial, “nobody was ever more fun to read.” It’s true. Thompson accomplished that most difficult of feats for a writer — he developed a style and vocabulary so singular you could pick up one of his books blind and know within a page or two he had written it.

If you read the comments on the posthumous stories about Thompson, which seem to come out about every month even though he committed suicide more than ten years ago, unfailingly someone will say “we need you more than ever, Hunter,” or “I wonder what Hunter would have to say about the president we have today.”

To answer question 1 above, I quote from page 389: “This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable...Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?”

To answer question 2, from page 469: “There’s an excitement and a pace to the presidential campaign that definitely keeps you wired. It’s a grueling trip, but that insane kind of zipping from place to place … on the Monday before the election we did Kansas and both coasts … I crossed over my own house in Colorado three times. It’s frantic, kind of chasing after the Golden Fleece, and probably a lot more fun if you don’t win or if you have no real stake in it … Yeah, it’s one of the best assignments I can think of.”

What I learned in reading and imitating Thompson as a young man might be the real wisdom he wanted to impart to all of us who came after. I learned the only way to do this was to do it my own way. The world doesn’t need another Hunter Stockton Thompson. But it does need more true originals. People unafraid to like what gives them kicks. People unafraid to be weird. People who can find the edge, and go past it.